Samah Idriss has an excellent editorial in the next issue of Al-Adab. I shall provide a link when it becomes available. He calls on progressives to put a distance between them and the opposition, while supporting opposition to the government. I agree. There are so many problems with the opposition in Lebanon. The ceiling is so low: to ask for the "blocking 3rd" is rather petty. And any settlement that keeps Sanyurah as prime minister, after all what was said and done, seems, well, corrupt. Samah reminds readers that there are corrupt elements in the opposition: the Amal movement can not speak about transparency and accountability. `Awn has been more firm and more principled in these protests that Hizbullah, which calls for the thing and its opposite: delegitimizing Sanyurah and then expressing willingness to work with him in a new cabinet. And there is absolutely no socio-economic agenda for Hizbullah--not that it is a leftist party to begin with, and neither are its allies. As for the sectarian conflict in Lebanon: I squarely blame Hariri Inc for that but the sectarian composition of Hizbullah and Amal facilitates the task of the Hariri dynasty. The protests should have focused on 1) the role of the government during the Israeli war on Lebanon; 2) rejection of Sanurah as a prime minister, ever; 3) the presentation of a socio-economic agenda that rejects the World Bank/IMF plank of the government; 4) outspoken opposition against the Saudi role in Lebanon; 5) insistence on a firm belief in the right of all Lebanese--not only Hizbullah--to resist Israeli occupation of Lebanon. That is my version of the opposition. Today, I read that the Syrian government expressed willingness to help in Lebanon. Oh, yeah. That is what we need. The Syrian government has the ability to make any settlement in Lebanon worse.
PS Al-Akhbar newspaper is way too uncritical of the opposition.